It’s not just me, they’re everywhere, right? What a time to be alive! Now I can just take a pill and eat whatever I want! Wait… it’s not a pill? You have to inject yourself? Oh, but it’s like an insulin injection where a plastic gizmo does it for you with a little snap. Well, that’s still pretty easy, isn’t it?

So how do these drugs work? What’s it actually doing in my body? What even is a ‘GLP-1’?

Effectively, these drugs work by curbing your hunger, and / or slowing your digestion. What does that mean? In the case of drugs like semaglutide, it mimics the effects of hormones that signal your brain that you’re full. GLP-1 stands for glucagon-like peptide-1, and is an intestinal hormone that helps your body regulate blood sugar levels. The GLP-1 drugs, then, are classes of drugs that mimic natural GLP-1 in your system and stimulate the pancreas to release insulin, which slows digestion and reduces appetite.

Some of these drugs take it one step further and release chemicals that block the intestines from absorbing dietary fat. The fine print says something like, “a portion of the fat consumed is not absorbed and will be eliminated through bowel movement.” I don’t know about you, but ‘fat in my poop’ does not sound like a pleasant evening.

What is all of this really saying? Basically, these drugs are either tricking your brain into feeling full, or messing with your digestive processes, or a combination thereof.

Do we know the long-term results of taking these drugs? These drugs are all brand-new, and are an off-shoot from diabetes medications. In fact, the weight loss is a side-effect of the diabetes medication. And that’s the thing with drugs, they always have side-effects.

Don’t get me wrong. For some people these weight loss drugs are a Godsend.

For the first time, these weight loss drugs are allowing people who were looking at a future of insulin injections and diabetic amputation to instead lead a relatively ‘normal’ life. I recently stepped on a nail that impaled my foot. It got infected and I needed surgery. My Podiatrist told me had I been diabetic, I would have lost the foot and possibly my whole leg from the knee down!

Facing the possibility of losing limbs simply from poor circulation is not how anyone wants to live. If I was pre-diabetic I would absolutely jump on these weight loss drugs RIGHT NOW. But does that mean I’d have to be on them forever? What happens when someone is on one of these drugs for 5 years? What about 10 years later? We just don’t know yet.

Will you see advertisements in the 2040’s with the voiceover saying, “IF YOU TOOK GLP-1 MEDICATIONS IN THE 2020’s YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION”?

That remains to be seen. My gut feeling is that you probably don’t want to be on these drugs for the rest of your life.
Of course, I am not pre-diabetic so I’m not considering these weight loss drugs at the moment. I am not pre-diabetic because following the initial ‘panic eating’ phase of the covid lockdown, I decided to get serious about my health. Within around 6 months, I went from weighing about 230 to 168. Without weight loss drugs.

That’s how I know it’s possible. You see, during the pandemic, I learned the 9 Core Competencies that everyone needs to know in order to effectively manage their health. Portion control is one of those Core Competencies.

Unfortunately, it’s also the only one the weight loss drugs are helping you with. If you stop and think about it, that’s the bottom-line with these drugs: They help you to eat less.

Eating less is important. That’s why it’s one of the nine. But if all you’re ever doing is controlling your portion sizes, you could still be missing out in the other eight areas.

What are those other Core Competencies?

Learning to take care of yourself by setting goals and moving toward them. Getting in touch with your body and learning to recognize your hunger, fullness and thirst cues. Ensuring that you’re matching energy intake with energy output. Learning the difference between higher-quality foods and lesser-quality foods and choosing the former more often. Giving your body the nutrients it needs. Moving often and well. Resting and recovering. And learning to manage emotions without food.

And that’s where I come in. As a Health Coach, I help people to learn those 9 Core Competencies and engrain them into their lives. I help people who are on these weight loss drugs to master the other aspects of their health so that they won’t need to be on the drugs long-term. I help people to take charge of their health so they get the results they want.

Would you like me to help you? Get started by getting your Personal Comprehensive Eating guide delivered to your inbox by answering a few simple questions here: https://www.eclecticwellbeing.com/myeatingguidequestionaire

To your health,

Mark

The post Should I try Weight Loss Drugs? appeared first on Eclectic Well-Being.

It’s like as soon as we learn something health-related about food, something new comes along to contradict the thing we just learned. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? What gives?

Like most things, there’s usually a grain of truth to something, but then it gets taken to extreme absurdity.

Let’s take butter, for example. Is butter bad for you? No. Would it be bad for you to eat only butter, and nothing else? Absolutely, but who’s doing that?

The truth hides in the middle.

A little butter isn’t going to hurt you. Eating it a stick at a time? Probably not the best idea.

Now it is true that in my personal health journey from 240 pounds down to 168 pounds, I made a lot of changes to my eating and exercise choices. But when I tell people that most of that difference resulted from cutting out processed foods, it starts to sound like a Conspiracy Theory.

Look, it’s not that “Big Food” is trying to kill us. There’s no evil plan where all of the food manufacturers got together and said, “Mwha-ha-ha-ha! If we add these specific ingredients to our products, it will make our customers sick and fat so our friends, Big Pharma, can profit from them! [Maniacal Laughter ensues]”

The reality is more like, “hmm, these less-expensive ingredients and fillers make the product cheaper while still tasting good so I can sell more product and make more money!” (If you don’t know what “fillers” are, check out grated cheese: https://www.golomblegal.com/blog/2016/march/what-is-the-real-problem-with-having-wood-pulp-i/ )

And the problem there is that those less-expensive ingredients and fillers also have less or zero nutritive value to them: they’re empty calories.

You see, those “artificial flavors and fragrances” are chemicals that mimic the chemicals naturally present in our foods that give that food its taste and smell. But that’s all it is: the chemical that causes the flavor or scent. The rest of the food that has the nutritive value isn’t there, only the flavor molecules.

That’s what we mean when we say, “empty calories.”

There’s nothing there your body can use for fuel. Your body runs on glucose, not chemical flavor molecules (or wood pulp for that matter).

What’s the problem with empty calories? You think you’re eating food, but you’re not. You’re eating a food-like substance, which fills your stomach and makes you feel “full.”

But when your body breaks down that substance into molecular form that it can use to repair your body and make new tissues, there’s nothing there for it to actually use. There’s no building material amid the filler. It’s just junk. So, your body removes the moisture content and passes the rest on to the colon for elimination.

Now your body is exhausted. It’s performed an entire digestive cycle, and it hasn’t gotten what it needs. Resources are becoming depleted. What does it do?

“Release the Ghrelin!” decrees the brain.

Ghrelin, of course, is the “hunger hormone.” Once released, you start to feel hungry again.

If you’re like I was, munching away on empty calories all day long because you’re hungry all day long, you might now be starting to understand why that is.

Yes, you are going to continue to feel hunger until your body is satisfied, nutritionally. You need to give your body what it wants. And it doesn’t want those empty calories.

What does your body want? I’ll be happy to tell you, but first I need to ask you a few questions. Click the link below to register for a free Comprehensive Eating Guide.

Answer a few questions on the form, and when you’re done, I’ll email you a personalized guide telling you how and what you want to eat to meet your specific health goals.

It’s free! Click now 😊 https://www.eclecticwellbeing.com/myeatingguidequestionaire

Why would you want a personalized eating guide? It’s your roadmap to success! The guide takes all the guesswork out of eating. You will know that what you’re eating is what your body wants and needs, AND in the proper portion sizes for you!

Once you start giving your body what it’s looking for, wonderful things start to happen. You start to realize that those decades you’ve spent trying to get your health under control are over. You’ve done it!

Take control of your life, now.

Click to get your Free Comprehensive Eating Guide and start seeing that scale swing in your favor.

https://www.eclecticwellbeing.com/myeatingguidequestionaire

The post What am I Supposed to Eat?! appeared first on Eclectic Well-Being.

I’ve been thinking about programming lately and realized that computer programming is a lot like baking. With regular cooking, there’s a pretty wide margin of error. There are a lot of mistakes you can make and still have your meal come out fairly decently. With baking, not so much.

Baking is more of applied chemistry. There are reactions that need to happen. For those reactions to happen in the way you want, you have to be very specific with your measurements. In order for your baked goods to come out consistently the same, you need to follow a recipe.

We could call that recipe an algorithm; a logical series of steps that must be performed exactly as laid out to get reproducible results every time. Well that sure sounds a lot like a computer program.

You could even compare a computer programmer to the chef who develops the recipe for others to follow. In both cases, a recipe or algorithm is being created that future people will use to replicate the results of the original. Pretty cool!

Ok, so how does that relate to health?

We’re almost there, I need to give you some more background information.

When developing a program, the first thing you encounter before you can run it is the debugging process. There are two kinds of errors you might find: syntax, and logical.

A syntax error means the computer can’t understand what you want it to do. These are usually spelling errors. Looking at it from a baking perspective, let’s say you’ve misread 4 Tbs for 4 C of water. You might immediately notice that your batter is entirely too loose.

Just like a computer syntax error, you will need to fix your batter before you can attempt to bake it. Of course with baking, that might mean you need to start over, whereas with a computer program, it means looking for the misspelling and correcting it.

A logic error might be harder to find. Logic errors mean that all of your code was spelled correctly, but what you told the computer to do was not actually what you wanted it to do. The way you know you have a logic error is to look at the output and realize it’s wrong.

With baking, maybe you used 2/3 cup of salt instead of sugar. Your muffins might come out looking ok, but they’ll probably be too salty to eat. Or, maybe you forgot to add the butter and now they’re super dry. We know we made a mistake, but we won’t know what mistake until we’ve tried the muffins.

Have we made the crossover to health yet?

That’s where we’re going now. The thing is, every single day, we’re programming our bodies, whether we realize it or not. We give ourselves input, in the form of food and drink, and we get the energy to power ourselves through the day as output, with a couple of waste products that we’re not going to discuss in this article.

With programming our bodies, the syntax errors are pretty obvious. If you’ve ever tried to siphon gasoline from one container to another with a hose that you primed with your mouth, you know that spitting out the gasoline is pretty intuitive.

As soon as you taste it, your body screams at you not to swallow it. Likewise, if you put hard objects like rocks in your mouth and try to chew them, you’ll experience quite a bit of pain from your teeth. These are analogous to syntax errors. You’re trying to get your body to do something and it’s rejecting your efforts.

Logic errors, though, are much more difficult to find. Most people deal with logic errors for decades before realizing that they are the cause of their own issues.

Your body is giving you feedback all the time.

The problem is, we ignore that feedback, or start taking a pill to make it go away. Case in point, my Uncle Bill. Here we have a man who suffered from chronic heart burn for years. The solution? Over-the-counter heartburn relief drugs. The result? He died of esophageal cancer.

That heartburn was feedback! But rather than listen to his body, he took a drug to numb the pain. That’s the thing with logic errors in health programming: they’re subtle. An odd pain here, stiff back there, trouble taking a full and deep breath, these are all little things that your body is telling you, something’s wrong.

But what would happen if we took a different approach? Instead of providing random input and stimulus, what if we got specific? What if we followed a recipe? What if someone else created an algorithm for us that we could follow to reproduce desired results?

Do you think getting healthy could be as easy as baking a cake?

Well you’re in luck because that’s just what we’ve combined with Cultivus Fitness to bring to you. Eight weeks of programming, in fact, including the nine core competencies that everyone must master to achieve great health, along with personal-trainer led classes that show you how to move in your workouts to get fit without injury. All without breaking the bank.

Is this the right program for you? Absolutely! Click here for more info: https://www.cultivusfitness.com/

The post Can we Program our Health? appeared first on Eclectic Well-Being.

We probably think in terms like this because it’s been drilled into our heads that having an overabundance of body fat is a bad thing. They even gave us a handy little metric we can use to gauge how dangerous our body fat levels have become: The BMI scale.

BMI stands for Body Mass Index, and is the ratio of your weight in kilograms divided by your height in meters squared, giving you a number like 26.3. You then take that number and compare it to the provided scale, where:

     Underweight = <18.5
     “Normal” weight = 18.5 – 24.9
     Overweight = 25-29.9 and
     Obesity = 30+

And now you will see that at 183 and 5’10 with a BMI score of 26.3, I am overweight for my height, even though I’m sitting around 15% body fat, which is extremely healthy for a 52-year-old man. What gives?

That’s the problem with the BMI table. It only works for average people. For example, in High School I was the same height at 135 pounds. Most people would have called me “scrawny” (and they did back then), yet BMI-wise, that’s considered “normal weight.” BMI typically goes out the window for anyone with an athletic build.

So why do we even care about weight in the first place?

Who really cares if I weigh 135, 240, 168, or 183? Well, I should. The heavier I am, the more strain there is on my heart, and the more stress there is on my joints.

But, it works the other way, too. When we have too little body fat, we can’t properly regulate our hormone levels. It’s more challenging to maintain body temperature. Vitamins and minerals don’t absorb properly. When we’re under-fat, we might have lower energy levels and lower resistance to disease.

A healthy body fat range for men is between 10-22%, and for women 20-32%. That percentage can come at any body weight and height, though, so BMI isn’t really our best indicator of health.

Do you know what your body fat percentage is currently? Probably not. Most of us have bathroom scales to tell us what we weigh, but nothing to tell us what our body composition is.

Body composition, you’ve probably surmised, is how much of what tissues make up our overall total body mass. For example: total weight, body fat, muscle mass, bone mass, visceral fat, and water percentage. (Ok, water isn’t a tissue type, but it does account for a good chunk of overall weight.)

How do we get this information? There are a few different methods.

The absolute most accurate measure of body composition is an autopsy. This is also an incredibly invasive procedure as it requires that the patient already be post-mortem.

As for things we can use while we’re still alive, calipers can be used to pinch the skin to determine how much fat is present. You take samples from several different specific locations on the body, then run a little math equation to get your average.

Caliper testing is pretty accurate, but it can be challenging to pinch yourself in the right spots to get accurate readings. It helps to have a friend or coach do it for you.

Along the same lines as caliper pinch testing is circumference measurements, where you use a flexible tape measure to take readings from specific areas of the body. This tends to be less accurate as people with larger muscles also will have larger measurements.

There are more “automated” methods as well.

Hydrostatic weighing is also fairly accurate. Basically you fill a bathtub with water all the way to the rim, then get in and measure how much water your body displaced. (In other words, how much water dumped over the edge once you submerged yourself completely.)

There’s something called Bodpod which is essentially the same as hydrostatic weighing, except you’re doing it in a sealed air chamber. The technical name for this is “air displacement plethysmography,” and it’s also pretty accurate.

Systems also exist that will take a 3D scan of your body with dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Here, low-level x-rays at different frequencies are passed through your body. The rays slow differently in response to the different tissues through which they pass, giving you a clear look at your body composition. The machine must be expertly calibrated for the best results.

My favorite method, and the one that I use, is bioelectric impedance. There are different types and some are more expensive than others. The highest degree of accuracy comes from segmental scales. These pass a low DC electrical signal through your feet and your hands at the same time. Like the x-rays, different tissues slow the electrical signal at different rates, giving you an overall picture of your personal composition.

I personally use the Tanita Ironman RD-901 InnerScan Pro for this. [Not a paid advertisement.] It’s a non-segmental version of the scale, so it’s not quite as accurate. But it’s half the cost, making it the winner in my book.

Body composition isn’t everything though.

At Eclectic Well-being, we like to look at what we call, “deep health.” We want our clients to thrive in all aspects of the human condition. We focus on the whole person and their whole life.

That means we’re looking at multiple aspects of their health. We focus on physical health, how our bodies feel, function, and perform. But we don’t stop there.

We also look at mental and cognitive health. How well we can think, learn, and remember. What is our client’s outlook and perspective on life and the world? How much capacity do we have for insight and conscious awareness? How creative and flexible are we in terms of problem solving?

There’s emotional health, comprising our general mood and our ability to feel and express our emotions. Are we experiencing more positive emotions than negative ones? Do we respond to emotional challenges in a productive, resilient way?

We focus on existential or “purposeful” health. What’s your “why?” Do we have a strong sense of intrinsic self-worth? Do we feel like we’re a part of a larger picture? What is our purpose in life?

Social health also comes to bear. How well do we connect and interact with others? Are we maintaining fulfilling, authentic relationships? Do we feel like we “belong” to something?

And finally we look at environmental health, or the feeling of being safe and secure, feeling supported, and having access to the resources we need to survive and thrive.

That is what “being healthy” means to us.

A deeply healthy person is a person who is leading a well-rounded life. Because once you have that under control, the body fat percentage takes care of itself.

Seriously. Being overweight is a symptom of another area of your life being out-of-whack. Once we get that addressed, everything else falls into place.

So, do you want to keep addressing the wrong problem and try yet another diet? Or do you want to finally get this figured out?

Here’s some great news! Right now, you can get started with the Reboot program we’re partnering with Cultivus Fitness to deliver. It starts on 9/30, so you’ve got time to prepare.

For more information, check out: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=821172910195587&set=a.491199929859555

The post What Does “Getting Healthy” Even Mean? appeared first on Eclectic Well-Being.

This isn’t anything new. You may remember the Slim Fast commercials with Tommy Lasorda. “Give us a week, we’ll take off the weight.”

The only problem with that is Tommy had way more than a week’s worth of extra weight hanging around.

And that’s the same problem with all of these other quick turnaround promises. Most of the time, you’ve got more than 8 weeks’ worth of extra weight.

We don’t become heavy overnight. We’re not going to get lean overnight either.

We’re always in a rush to get there because we now live in the Amazon Age of Instant Gratification. It’s not the 1980’s anymore. We want results now!

But sometimes, there simply aren’t any shortcuts.

If you were constructing a house, you wouldn’t start with the roof. You’d need to lay the foundation, and build up from there.

We aren’t dealing with homes here, though. Instead, we have an already-built body, and now we want to remove an excess of fat, while building up lean mass.

But how often do we ever look at it from this perspective? What do we say most of the time instead?

“Wow, I need to lose some weight!”

Weight. Right off the bat, we’re starting by addressing the wrong problem. Well, heck, if I were to amputate a leg, that’s good for at least 50 pounds right there, yeah?

Ah, so maybe we don’t just want to lose weight. In fact, maybe we don’t want to lose anything at all!

When we lose something, the implication is that it’s something that we would like to find again one day. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to find my missing fat pounds again at some future date.

So, if we don’t actually want to lose weight, what do we want to do? We want to release our fat pounds.

Yes! Release them; let them go! [Cue Elsa singing] We don’t want those fat pounds hanging around, and we certainly don’t want them back again!

Great! Now how do we do that?

We’re going to need a plan. The good news is that the plan is pretty simple: Eat healthy food and exercise.

Wait… Isn’t that exactly what the 8-Week Transformation is going to do? No, probably not.

First off, are they focused on food at all? Or are they just throwing a bunch of cardio at you?

Don’t get me wrong, we do need some form of cardio in our lives if we want to consider ourselves healthy. But if that’s all you’re doing, your efforts will be futile.

A focus on Resistance training is crucial. Resistance training builds muscle tissue, which is metabolically active. That means your muscle mass is always actively burning calories, even while you’re at rest (even while sleeping!)

Resistance Training also changes the internal biology of your cells themselves, adding more mitochondria and nuclei, giving you more available energy.

Is the program focused on mindset with a long-term approach to health? Or is it just a promise of a “quick fix?”

As we’ve discussed already, those quick fixes don’t last.

Are the people who are running the program interested in your ongoing health? Or are they only looking to make some fast cash off of you?

The program you choose should offer accountability and support. I’ve tried some “do it yourself at home” programs in the past. If you’re going to invest in a program, you want experts working with you. You shouldn’t have to go it alone.

Those experts are there to help keep you safe. If you take a person who’s been sitting on the couch for years and isn’t used to exercising outside of basic yardwork, and suddenly expect them to perform the workout routine of an Olympic wrestler 3 days a week for 8 weeks, how long do you think it will take before they become injured?

Experts take these things into account and plan a program that will ramp up the intensity. They will also ensure that the program is balanced, so you’re never overloading any particular areas of the body.

The “weight loss” industry is rife with people looking to profit from your misery; and those people are all too happy to take your money yet keep you miserable so you’ll keep paying them.

Should all of these “get back into health” 6-8 week programs be avoided? Of course not, but you’ll want to take a look at the program’s specifics.

If all of the advertising is promising you that you’re going to have a miraculous experience in transforming from being an out-of-shape, out-of-practice, eating machine, to a perfectly sculpted demi-god who is the envy of all their peers in only 8 weeks; avoid this program at all costs.

Those are all bright red flags indicating that the creators of the program are trying to manipulate you into joining it by promising you results in “just 8 weeks.” It’s very likely that they are only interested in taking your money and couldn’t care less about your success.

OK, so what does a good program look like then?

You want a program that’s going to define “healthy” for you. What does “healthy” even look like? What foods are healthy foods, and what aren’t? How do you make eating healthy foods palatable? What are healthy activities? What does “being healthy” even mean?

Are you going to become completely, totally healthy in 8 weeks? Probably not. And the program you join should be clear on that.

Your program should help to get you started, and it should be very much aware that the end of the 8 week program, isn’t the end for you. It’s just the beginning.

A good program will give you knowledge and training, and will inspire you to make permanent changes to your life that result in truly life-changing, long-term health.

It will give you the tools and the instructions you need to finally become that healthy individual you’ve been wanting to become for decades now. Not in 8 weeks, but slowly, over the course of many months, change will continue to come from deep inside of you as a result of having done this program.

That is what a good program looks like. Not an 8 week promise to fix all of your problems; but rather an 8 week, expert-designed and led, program to get you going, get you motivated, keep you safe, and get you to stick with it.

Because that’s really the critical piece: Consistency. You want to arm yourself with everything you need to be successful, and then start doing it. Consistently. Not merely for 8 weeks, but in perpetuity.

And that’s what a good program will give you: Things you can start doing now, and keep doing to keep building your health beyond a short 8 weeks.

And that’s exactly what you’ll get with the 8 week fitness Reboot program we’re partnering with Cultivus Fitness to deliver.

You’ll get all the nutrition information you need, access to me as a your Health Coach, instructor-led Yoga sessions and instructor-led workouts.

Reboot your:
👉Thinking » Develop a positive, can-do mindset
👉Habits » Create sustainable, healthy routines
👉Fitness » Achieve the strong, vibrant body you deserve

We like working with Cultivus because they offer no judgement, just support, which pairs well with our philosophy of working with what you have.

This is the program you’ve been waiting for.

Learn more here: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=817987587180786&set=a.491199929859555

The post Don’t be in a Rush to Get There appeared first on Eclectic Well-Being.

By Mark Szabo

Most people who decide to get healthy for New Year’s will have quit in disgust within two weeks.

Why does becoming healthy have such a high failure rate?

To answer that, let’s look at our friend Bob:

Now Bob lives a fairly sedentary life. He’s seated commuting to his 9-5 desk job. Seated again commuting home to his wife and two kids.

They typically pop some frozen meals into the oven after work then eat in front of the tv.

Spending a couple hours on the couch while having a few beers, they’re then off to bed.

Bob doesn’t feel like he has much free time with his daily commute, so he never gets to the gym.

The only walking he ever gets is between his car and his destination.

He knows he doesn’t feel good these days. He has these persistent pains that pop up here and there, in his gut, his back, and his shoulders.

And that darned dryer keeps shrinking his clothes, so he has to buy larger sizes.

Bob knows something needs to change, so he makes a New Year’s Resolution to make this the year he gets healthy.

Bob has always been a “go big or go home” kind of guy, so he wants to do something that feels drastic.

• He completely changes up his entire eating routine.
• He decides to go zero-carb on every meal.
• He’s switching to black coffee, no sugar.
• He decides he’s going to hit the gym at 4 am every day before work.
• Wanting to alleviate his back pain, he plans to attend Yoga class every day after his commute.
• He’s also committed himself to zero alcohol until he gets himself healthy again.

What do you think about Bob’s plan? Register for the 5-Day Health Shift to see my thoughts.

He is totally stoked to get started; he *KNOWS* this is going to work!

Day One goes great!

Bob is so excited he’s up before his alarm.

He cringes through the bitter adjustment to black coffee while convincing himself that a bowl of cottage cheese with a sprinkle of cinnamon actually tastes good.

Then he drives to the gym where perky, mid-20’s, New Member Coordinator, Lisa, gives him a whirlwind tour showing him absolutely everything the gym has to offer.

It’s a large gym with equipment everywhere. They have a running track, a swimming pool, and various activity rooms for spin classes, Yoga, self-defense, dance, and such.

Bob was overwhelmed when Lisa asked him if he had any questions at the conclusion of the tour.

He had tons of questions, but nothing could make it from his brain to his mouth before “uh… thanks, I’m good,” escaped his lips.

Lisa tells him that the Trainers will be happy to show him how to use any of the equipment properly and asks him if he’d like her to set up an appointment.

He declines her offer because he doesn’t want to get suckered into paying extra, and Lisa leaves him to start his workout.

“Where to begin?” thought Bob.

He hadn’t worked out since High School, and back then he did what his buddy Chris told him to do.

All they had was a bench, a bar, and some old York plates, so Bob was most familiar with the free weights.

But after viewing the free weight area of the gym with the very intimidating, well-muscled, extremely fit individuals, he feels unworthy and decides his flabby self needs some cardio.

Selecting an exercise bike from the array of available machines, Bob pedals his way through a sweaty, seat-chaffing, excruciating 10 minutes before his lungs convince him to stop by attempting to jump out of his chest.

Once his lungs have agreed that movement is again an option, Bob decides he needs to pump some iron like he did back in school.

But he’s too embarrassed to be seen with the sculpted people in the free weight section.

Instead, he finds the isolation equipment.

Bob then performs one warmup and one work set for every major muscle in his body that he can find a machine to work.

His efforts resulting in a full-body workout in just under an hour.

Bob was proud of himself!

Was that the right kind of workout for Bob to do? Sign up for the 5-Day Health Shift to get my take.

Riding that high all day, at lunch he avoided the all-you-can-eat buffet and opted for a salad with chicken and bacon smothered in zero-carb ranch dressing, and loved it!

He downloaded the gym app and found a Yoga class to take on his way home.

It wound up being a Gentle class that Bob found excruciatingly boring and he left feeling unfulfilled.

As part of his Health Transformation, Bob convinced his wife Beth to give cooking a try since she typically got home several hours before him.

When Bob got home that evening, instead of pre-cooked frozen instant meals, Beth had a steak covered in mushrooms and butter with sauteed broccoli on the side waiting for him.

He was in heaven, only slightly enviously watching his wife and kids chow down on loaded baked potatoes. Bob slept well that night.

The next morning slapped Bob awake with his 4 a.m. alarm.

He woke up sore from the day before which brought a “no pain, no gain” smile to his face, yet moving was challenging.

He got himself ready as he grimaced through his cottage cheese and black coffee breakfast.

Then headed off to the gym where he managed 12 minutes on the bike and a couple more reps on the work sets of the machines used in his full body workout.

At work he had the same salad again and booked his evening Yoga class, this time called “Vinyasa.”

Toward the end of the day Bob is feeling a bit “off” and “edgy.”

He doesn’t realize it but he’s feeling the effects of carb depletion with his no-carb diet.

By the time he gets to Yoga class he’s downright grumpy.

His body hasn’t transitioned over to fat-burning mode yet and Bob is experiencing carb withdrawal.

Hoping this class makes him feel better, he’s greeted by an instructor named John who tells him this class will be non-stop movement and to listen for alternative cues for adjustments with the blocks.

John’s class was much more challenging for Bob. He liked it better than that Gentle class because he felt like he had actually accomplished something.

At home that evening Bob was feeling drained and famished.

Beth had made pasta for herself and the kids and offered Bob a boiled chicken breast with some leftover broccoli.

Is Beth mad at Bob for something? Find out with the 5-Day Health Shift 😊

Dousing the breast in salt, pepper, and garlic powder, he ate it with a serious side of food envy; he was really craving that pasta.

Bob fell asleep on the couch and Beth had to wake him to come to bed.

There he then tossed and turned before finally falling asleep about 5 minutes before his alarm.

Bob woke exhausted, worn-out, and sore from head-to-toe, spending every ounce of motivation he had to get himself up and to the gym for Day 3, where things proceeded poorly.

He called it quits after only 5 minutes on the bike, declaring himself “warm enough.”

He struggled to get even the same number of reps out as he did on Day 1, but did finish and made it to work.

At lunch he broke down and had an Italian Sub, justifying it as salad on bread.

Looking at the Yoga schedule, he saw something called “Hot Yoga” in his preferred time slot and thought that might be good for his aching body.

Whoa! Hot Yoga was too hot for Bob,

and this class moved way too fast.

He tried to follow Katie’s cues, but was simply unable to keep up.

He did sweat a lot though, so he jumped in the shower as soon as he got home.

Beth made steak again, although this time with a medley of mixed carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower, along with loaded baked potatoes for herself and the kids.

Bob was beyond exhausted and could barely keep his eyes open on the couch, so he went to bed early, sleeping soundly even as Beth finally retired.

As the alarm sounds the beginning of Day 4 the first thing Bob notices is how awful he feels.

Everywhere hurt, every time he moved, in any direction; not only the muscles but his joints too.

Should Bob be going to the gym when in this much pain? The 5-Day Health Shift has the answers.

He didn’t remember pain like this when he worked out with Chris.

He chalked it up to getting older and trudged his way through his morning and into the gym.

Again, he managed a meager 5 minutes on the bike and faced a similar struggle with the rest of his workout.

Bob didn’t understand how he could be getting weaker instead of stronger.

When he got to work people could see his Grumpy Gus demeanor coming down the hallway and quickly turned to walk the other way to avoid him.

Bob knew he needed to get back on track with the diet so he ordered the salad again, dreaming of an Italian Sub while eating it and scrolling the app for a Yoga class.

“Yin” was in his slot tonight. Hopefully it wasn’t hot…

As Brooke the Yin instructor was explaining that Yin was about getting a deep, supported stretch into the tissues of the body, Bob was relieved that the studio was at a reasonable temperature.

The long, active lengthening Bob experienced felt amazingly good on his aching body. Bob absolutely loved this class!

Walking back to his car, Bob felt great, like he was actually walking taller, which he thought was weird.

Sitting down into his car, he realized for the first time how scrunched over a position his seat was contorting his body into.

He jacked the lower lumbar support as far up as it would go, raised the seat up a smidge, straightened the seat back to a more upright posture, then had to readjust the headrest to stop it from jutting his head forward.

The entire ride home he couldn’t believe how slouched he’d been this whole time.

For years!

How did he never notice?

Is it really possible to straighten your body out with Yoga? Sign up for the 5-Day Health Shift!

Beth made chicken breast for dinner again, this time roasted in the oven with some balsamic oil and vinegar drizzled over top, with a side of steamed carrots that she cut into 2” long chips.

She and the kids had pasta on the side.

The chicken was a bit dry, but Bob washed it down with some water.

Nothing could spoil his mood after that class.

After dinner as they sat on the couch the post-Yoga-class glow began to wane and the aching joints and muscles made themselves known again.

Not as badly as before class, but Bob was definitely feeling the pain creeping its way back in.

It wasn’t enough to keep him up though and Bob slept soundly through the night.

The next morning Bob had thought the pain would have diminished by now, but it was as bad if not worse than the day before.

He moved very slowly as he begrudgingly dragged himself through breakfast and on to the gym where his performance was as dismal as it was on Days 3 and 4, leaving him feeling drained and lousy at the outset.

Not realizing he was feeling the effects of carb depletion again,

moodiness was the theme of the day at work and Bob was not a pleasant fellow.

For lunch he *REALLY* wanted a big-ass burger with a side of fries, but opted instead for food envy as he scrolled the Yoga app, munching away on salad while watching others eat their carb-y deliciousness.

Bob booked a “Restorative” class for tonight.

At the studio Bob was again pleased to find a comfortable temperature as Jen explained the basics of a Restore class.

It was similar to Yin, but with the goal of letting the tissues of the body relax fully instead of actively stretch.

Bob counted an entire four poses for the whole hour, but they were so relaxing that he was almost asleep in each of them.

Beth cooked a frozen cauliflower crust pizza with chicken, peppers, and onions for Bob while she and the kids had takeout pizza from their local place.

Is cauliflower crust frozen pizza healthier than takeout? Register for the 5-Day Health Shift here.

Their pizza definitely looked better than his.

Bob found himself crashing on the couch, so he retired before Beth.

Not bothering to set his alarm for the weekend, he welcomed a rest from the morning gym routine.

He woke to the sun peering in through the windows around 7 a.m.

Still achy, he was hoping the weekend off would do him some good.

Following the scent of coffee to the kitchen, he found Beth making frozen toaster waffles for herself and the kids.

Bob watched jealously as they chowed down on their buttery syrup confections.

While he had another freaking bowl of cottage cheese with cinnamon.

Bob’s craving for carbs was palpable at this point, but he stuck to the diet.

The weekend was time for garage projects,

and though Bob had his hands full maintaining his winter equipment, his mind was free to dream of big, juicy burgers.

When he had worked up enough of an appetite he came back inside and shouted, “Who wants burgers?”

Even though it was only 20° outside, Bob grilled 5 burgers, two patties for himself and one each for Beth and the kids.

He used lettuce as a wrap instead of a bun to keep it low-carb.

After spending the rest of the afternoon in the garage and Beth not wanting to cook that night, they decided to go to their favorite Italian restaurant for dinner.

Beth and the kids each order their favorite dish: Chicken Marsala with penne, Vodka Rigatoni, and a Chicken Parm sandwich.

Bob struggled to find anything that didn’t have carbs in it.

What should Bob have done instead? Click here for the 5-Day Health Shift!

He settled on an antipasto platter.

It wasn’t really what he wanted.

His favorite was their Frutti di Mare over Linguini, but that was way too carb-y right now.

This. Was. Torture.

Later that evening as they’re watching TV, Bob thinks he feels like his body is starting to recover.

They both stay up a little bit later than they wanted to but manage not to crash on the couch.

Sleep comes quickly in the bedroom and Bob doesn’t wake until morning.

With the sun gently nudging Bob awake he begins to stir.

Moving his arms and legs, flexing and stretching, the muscles are feeling better, but those joints are still complaining.

In his quest for coffee he discovered Beth in the kitchen again, this time with microwave pancakes.

-_- This cottage cheese shit was getting really old.

How long would you last eating cottage cheese for breakfast every day? What should Bob have done instead?

Bob’s usual Sunday Football routine felt off without the beer to his left and a bowl of chips and cheese dip on his right.

Beth picked up some lunch meat and sliced cheese for lunch.

While she and the kids had sandwiches, Bob made some meaty roll-ups with lettuce to wrap it all together.

Beth made chili for dinner that night.

She had never made chili before, but she had a container of chili seasoning spices and could read the spice to water ratio on the label.

She browned the meat, then dumped in the spices, stirred it all in, added the water, then stirred it again.

Then served it with a package of microwave 90 second white rice, and a, “Boom! Chili 😊”

Bob skipped the rice and had the meat by itself.

It wasn’t bad, really.

I mean, it definitely wasn’t going to win any chili cook-offs, but it was decent for her first attempt.

They watched the night game and went to bed at halftime because it was a blowout.

He tossed around for a little while, but Bob finally managed to get back to sleep.

He woke the next morning to the sun shining in.

“Shit! I forgot to set my alarm!” he exclaimed as soon as he realized it was Monday.

“But, man these joints are still killing me. Maybe I should give it a rest until they feel better.”

Several weeks went by before he felt up to going back to the gym.

By then he had blown the diet and not tried to restart it, so he figured why bother.

He was still making it to Yoga three days a week, so he had that going for him.

He stuck with the black coffee, and Beth continued to cook at home.

But it would be another year before he attempted to diet again.

…

So, what did Bob do right, and what could he have done better?

How could Bob have approached this in a way that would have guaranteed his success?

To find out, sign up for my FREE 5-Day Health Shift, launching Sunday, Feb 5, and set yourself up for success! Simply Sign up with your email, and for 5 days, learn healthy strategies to feel better, live longer and enjoy life! Sign up today!

The post Bob’s Resolution Story appeared first on Eclectic Well-Being.

Last week Mark wrote about our quest to find the perfect spot for our Eclectic Sanctuary and perhaps grow some culinary herbs. We thought we found the spot, but after further insight, further introspection, we realized those 3 massive barns were not it. No matter how much we wanted it to be, the house just didn’t work for our lifestyle.

We almost put in an offer.

We almost got so wrapped up in the new “shiny object” that we forgot what is most important.

See the barns were amazing. The whole property was amazing! The idea of US owning them and making it into this herb farm where folks could come get fresh herbs and maybe even take a cooking class was drawing us in.

There was plenty of space for farming. The barns could be repurposed for drying out herbs. We had space to construct some greenhouses. The kitchen was most certainly large enough to host a class.

Square Peg – Round Hole

So, what was most important, where living in this home would have been much like trying to get a square peg in a round hole?

Ultimately it was the importance of entertaining friends and family.

Mark and I do not host big parties or have gatherings every week. But when we do have friends and family over, we like to hang out in an area that is comforting, brings nature inside, and where we can cook and still be part of the conversation.

On Thanksgiving, we ultimately enjoy preparing dinner together while also partaking in all the conversations with family because our kitchen is open to a space where everyone gathers.

No matter how hard we tried to make this house meet our desires and become our home, allowing us to enjoy living in it, it just didn’t fit.

And we tried.  I sketched out numerous plans and ideas, but there was just no way to connect the beautiful entertaining room to the kitchen and no way to have a bright airy bedroom and not take away from public space.

So here we are, back to step one.

We could have saved much time and energy had we had more clarity on what is most important to us.

See, we set out with an idea. A rough framework. We gave a guide to our realtor. It was pretty specific, but it didn’t express what was most important.

One must be perfectly clear about what brings them joy if they are to find joy.

Mark and I were looking at all the opportunities that had come into mind since starting this journey: Farm Stay, Herbs, Chickens, and being close to the Delaware River towns.

When we started this quest, it was all about having a few guestrooms and then space to host Wellness Retreats.  I intentionally wasn’t clear about specifics because I thought there could be numerous ways to make this work.

But ultimately, my goal was and is to be financially self-sustainable and also live a life I love. Every single day!

I realize now these two things are what is truly important to me. My true desire is not having a small retreat center. My true desire is to create a life I love where I am financially self-sustainable.

So when this opportunity of a farm came into view, and it had a pool where I could host Aqua Yoga classes, it seemed we found IT! We found the property where we could manifest our dreams.

What I wasn’t clear about, was my personal life needs and desires. How I want to live when not working.

So last week after our second trip up there, I started drawing new plans. Researching other possibilities. But nothing worked. I was ready to just make an offer and figure it out later. There had to be a way, right? How could we let this opportunity pass us by?

And then it hit me.

Listen to Your Heart

I sat quietly and listened to my heart. I listened to my desires of how I wanted to wake up in the morning with the sun shining in through my windows.

How I want to continue to have family over for Thanksgiving and be able to congregate in a shared space of nature and food as well as be accessible to everyone in my family, something that would not be the case in this house.

How I wanted to relax in the evening. Spending time noticing the sun set while maybe turning on the TV for a show or two.

And my heart was sad.

No matter how we remodeled or changed the flow of the house, it was not conducive to our way of living.

And it was not really helping me get to being financially self-sustainable.

Making all these changes was going to be expensive. At least $100K to $200K. Using up a lot of funds that could be better purposed toward financial sustainability.

And my heart wouldn’t be happy?

And what about money to start the farm? Buy a tractor, seeds, a greenhouse?

I put away the sketches and plans for the house and sat down and wrote what was most important to me in living my life. Mark was out shooting pool, so I had plenty of time to think alone.

Integrating Our Desires

The next morning, I asked Mark to make a list of what is most important to him. How he sees us living our lives say 5 years from now.  I didn’t share my list at this point as I didn’t want to influence his desires.

His list was a bit different. But there was some overlap.

But the overlap is not our combined vision. It is the totality of both visions that is our combined vision.

I cannot ignore Mark’s desire for land just as he can’t ignore my desire for still wanting to teach at FIT. That would be sacrificing our own individual desires and would probably leave one of us feeling a bit unsatisfied.

Our list is longer now. It may be harder to find that perfect property.

BUT MAYBE NOT.

See now we have an easy way to say yes or no. We go to our list. How many boxes does it check off? We now have complete clarity of what we are looking for. Will there be adjustments and compromises? Sure. But knowing what is most important, makes the decision-making process much simpler.

Today we are headed out again to look at some areas and properties: 2 open houses and a few drive-bys. We will see what the universe decides to show us now that we have clarity on what’s most important.

The post What’s Most Important appeared first on Eclectic Well-Being.

By Mark Szabo

Many of the thoughts we have, the decisions we make, come from a time in our childhood. A time of pain and trauma. I bet you still remember something from your childhood that brings a tinge of suffering and may have caused some unconscious decisions.

For me, childhood trauma dictated much of my early adulthood. My story is a journey of a scrawny kid that grew into a 240-pound overweight man, who spent years on the diet yoyo to only find the answers by facing my childhood trauma.

I didn’t have the greatest childhood.

Don’t get me wrong here; it wasn’t absolutely awful all the time, but it certainly had its moments.

I learned at an early age that personal value was directly proportional to athletic ability.

And I sucked at sports.

Of course, today I know that this isn’t true. There are plenty of people who are valued for things aside from sports. But when I was a kid, my father tried to teach me how to catch.

Maybe I was too young? I remember it like I’m 4-5, but I’m not too sure. I was his first son, and Dad had been an athlete when he was younger. He was eager to get me started.

Maybe he should have started with something softer than a baseball? My parents played tennis, so we had an infinite number of tennis balls lying around. But no. My dad was more of a Go-Big-or-Go-Home guy, so baseball it is!

I don’t know if it would have mattered though. My eyesight was horrible back then. I remember being at the eye doctor and all I could see was that big E at the top of the chart. Forget about any of the other letters. Even that big E was pretty fuzzy.

With vision like that, you probably remember the glasses I had to wear. This is the early 1970’s we’re talking about. You know, those thick black plastic frames with those coke-bottle lenses?

So I’m wearing those while my dad is trying to teach me to catch.

I didn’t understand it at the time, but those coke-bottle lenses have some serious refraction to them. Like, if you look through any lens on an angle, it bends the image a bit. With the size of those coke-bottles, things get skewed significantly.

I’m crouched down in the front yard, trying to catch my dad’s baseball, while looking though these crazy-thick glasses, and I can’t figure out where my hands should go.

I keep placing my hands where I think the ball is going to be, but each time it got close to me, it would rapidly shoot in any direction. I’d miss it, the ball would hit me, and my dad would get a bit more frustrated.

“Keep your eye on the ball!” he repeatedly shouted at me.

I tried. That last second little zip of the ball would get me every time.

Looking back on it now, I realize that the ball wasn’t really changing direction. It was the glasses skewing the image. But my little kid brain didn’t understand that.

The ball kept hitting me. My dad kept getting more and more frustrated. I started crying. He yelled at me.

“SO WHAT?! Balls are going to hit you!! SO WHAT?! You don’t CRY every time a Ball HITS you!”

At that point he realized that maybe a softer ball would have been better to start with, so he went and found a softball. It kept hitting me too.

“IT’S A SOFTBALL!! It’s SOFT for Christ’s sake!”

Finally he grabbed a tennis ball. When it too kept hitting me he screamed, “JESUS CHRIST it’s a F@$#ING TENNIS BALL!!” then started bouncing off his forehead to demonstrate it’s softness.

At this point I was crying more because my father was screaming at me. Then he had had enough. He told me to sit there and cry about it, and he stormed off into the house.

And that was pretty much it. He gave up on me and cast all of his athletic aspirations onto my younger brother.

So in my little kid mind, I concluded that to be valued, you have to be good at sports. And since I obviously sucked at sports, I must therefore have little value.

From that point until we got our first computer, my dad showed very little interest in me. I think he resented me. But when we got the computer (and I use the term loosely – it was a Commodore 64) he realized that I had some aptitude for the thing.

Then my young mind realized, “AH-HA! There’s ANOTHER WAY to be Valued!

You can either be good in sports -OR- computers!”

Now, obviously there are plenty of other ways to have value in this world, but I was 11-12 at the time. I was working with what I knew.

So I asked him to get me a modem. He responded with, “Who the hell are you going to use it with? You know it has to connect to another modem over the phone line to work, right?”

I convinced him to let me worry about that.

One War Dialer later and I was connected to every BBS I could dial without it being long-distance.

Ok, so to explain a War Dialer: It’s a computer program named after that one scene in War Games with Matthew Broderick where you see the computer dialing phone numbers in sequential order and logging which ones are answered by a modem.

BBS stands for Bulletin Board System. It was actually a lot like Facebook, except all text, no images, and only one person could connect to it at a time.

It was so much fun; I was running my own board within 6 months. I had found a small community of people who also found personal value through computers. Here I could be bold and outspoken.

But I couldn’t figure out how my computer skills would be useful in school, so there I still felt useless.

SCRAWNY BOY TO BIG MAN

Having low self-esteem in a Middle School environment went about how you’d expect it to go.

I got picked on and bullied daily. I hated school. Even the girls were mean to me.

High School was a little bit better. The guys had gotten over the fun of knocking my books out of my hands then kicking my papers up and down the hallway. Now they were into more psychological abuse. Calling me a fag was almost as popular as pointing out how scrawny I was.

My blood boiled, but I never fought back. I just stood there and took it. Over time I developed a very thick skin, but I still wanted it to stop.

I saw how no one ever messed with the big guys. So I decided I was going to be a big guy. If I were a big guy, then no one would mess with me!

My dad was a big guy, his brothers were too. In fact, my dad had been an amateur bodybuilder when he was younger.

I figured I probably had the genetics within me to get big, so I started hitting the weights.

It turns out, you need to be very clear when making decisions. My decision to get big said nothing about health. It also didn’t define what, “big” meant. My brain heard, “get bigger at all costs.”

I graduated High School in 1990 weighing in at 135. When 2000 rolled around, I had already hit 240.

I had put on a solid hundred plus pounds.

But there was way more fat than there was muscle.

I was tagged in a picture from back then and I couldn’t find myself in it. I was dead center. My face was so fat that I didn’t recognize myself.

I hated having my picture taken. When it couldn’t be avoided, I’d stand there trying to suck in my gut in an effort to look thinner. There are quite a few pics of me looking uncomfortable as a result.

I enjoyed tanning when I was younger, so naturally I liked to go shirtless at the pool. But then I started wearing my shirt in the water after a woman made the “ew, gross” face at me while I was talking to her.

I was embarrassed over how heavy I had gotten, and how quickly!

I already had low self-esteem.

Now I had to deal with obesity too!

I knew I had to do something, so I tried eating healthier. Back then, “healthier” meant low-fat everything.

The Doctors told us, “Fat, BAD!”

So I cut it out of everything. What they didn’t tell us is that fat is a flavor carrier, so no fat = no flavor. As a result, all of the low-or-no-fat products were cramming in more sugar to make up for it.

I did low-fat like that for a while, never seeing anything much less than 235 on the scale.

Other diet fads came and went. I’d lose a little then it back. Always fluctuating in the 230’s.

I kept repeating the same cycle: New diet, yay! Lost 5-10 pounds, yay! This diet sucks, boo! I can’t keep this up! >Quit diet< “I’m a failure!” Shame-eat back all the weight I had just lost.

That pattern continued at least once a year until I got into mindfulness. I picked up a book called, “How to Meditate. ”

I had heard good things about meditation, so I gave it a shot.

Up to then, I believed meditation was sitting there cross-legged with your fingers making OK signs on your knees while thinking about nothing.

It turns out, you really can’t not think.

The purpose of the brain is to have thoughts. Even thinking about not thinking is thinking. You can’t stop your brain from thinking.

But you can decide not to attach to the thoughts. Meditation is accepting that thoughts will occur, but letting them go and saving them for later.

It gives the mind time to relax.

Time to not think about all of the stuff that happened before now.

Time to not think about all of the things that will need to happen later.

Meditation is personal “me time.” Not anyone else’s time. It is exclusively my time.

Meditation is appreciation of the now.

The now that is right now.

The now in which the senses are processed.

You can’t experience the feeling of your heart beating in the past. You can only feel it in the now.

The now is the only thing we truly experience. Everything else is either a memory, or a fantasy.

The now is always now.

The previous words in this sentence are already then.

That’s how now the now is.

My mindfulness practice is the study of my Self.

Not myself, that wasn’t a typo.

I mean my personal Self. Not my parent’s expectations of me. Not anyone else’s expression of me.

My own personal me that is me. Truly me. What does it mean to be me? How does it feel to be me? Who is me? Who am I?

My practice is the study of the answers to those questions.

When I started on the path of exploring Self, it naturally led to the path of Self-Development. When we started doing Yoga, I finally broke into the 220’s.

Yoga was a natural for me. Performing Yoga postures is a form of moving meditation. Instead of allowing thoughts to come then float way, you turn your senses inward, feeling the posture throughout your whole body.

What I really love about Yoga is how my body feels after class. It feels like your body is thanking you. I feel good after going to the gym, but it doesn’t compare to a good Yoga class.

My weight bounced around the 220-point for a while there. It wasn’t until we got into personal coaching and I started to explore the basis for my beliefs that my weight really began to drop.

When I was finally able to break out of that loop of self-loathing, the weight started to slide right off.

It was like losing a layer of me that I no longer needed.

Without taking time to focus on my thoughts, I don’t think I would have broken the cycle. Our mind is a powerful tool. Our conscious and subconscious thoughts can either help or hinder us in whatever we set out to do. If those thoughts are negative and self-loathing, we will continue to hurt ourselves, reliving the pain and suffering of the past. It is not until we break that loop, and change our thought patterns, that we can begin to live in a state abundance.  A state of happiness and health.

This profound change in my life has led me to helping others work past their childhood traumas. To help those stuck on the diet yoyo. Lead them out of the suffering so that they too can have the life, health, and body they truly desire.

It all starts with the Self. Self-Care as my better half likes to call it! When we decide we are good enough to live the life we desire. We are not that child filled with hurt and pain. We are strong and when we use our mind to change our thought patterns, we start treating our body with respect and love.

If you have been struggling with weight gain, if you’ve been struggling to live the life you dream about, start with letting go of the negative self-talk. Recognize it when it starts and switch your awareness to your breath. Breathe deeply for 5 minutes. Guess what – you’re meditating! That was the start of my journey to health and happiness!

Want to learn a few more secrets of mine? Schedule a Well-Being 101 call with me and discover 3 simple secrets to move beyond the diet yoyo and get on with living a happy and healthy life of abundance!

The post Reliving Our “Wonder” Years? appeared first on Eclectic Well-Being.

by Kathi Szabo

I truly believe that without a clear vision of what you really want in life, you will never be satisfied.

But, I also believe that our desires, our vision of what we want our lives to be, is always changing, rarely staying the same.

First, when we achieve our desires, our mind notices other things that are in line with our first desire. For example, say our dream is to travel to Machu Pichu. Once we achieve that, we notice so many other wonders in the world we want to see. Or maybe once we visit Machu Pichu, we’re satisfied and we want to settle down and buy a house.

Then there are times we get closer to our dreams and desires, and something about it doesn’t feel right. We notice something different and become more intrigued. We decide to make adjustments to our dream based on what we know now.

That’s life. Life is always changing. We are always changing. Others are always changing. Things happen that we have no control over yet it impacts us. We can choose how it impacts us, but it still impacts us.

When Mark and I started Eclectic Well-Being, we had one clear vision, to help people live better lives. It was pretty simple. We knew that included the internal self, thoughts, emotions, basically your mindset. We also knew it include the body. Not that we want everyone to have Instagram Yogi bodies, but we want to help others live a healthy life, so they can live longer and enjoy more of their life. And we knew helping people live better lives included connection. Connection to community and connection to nature.

The Changing Vision of Eclectic Well-Being

Last year we worked hard to create a platform similar to what we created at our yoga studio, offer classes and workshops, a membership site, and membership perks. That was actually deviation from our original  vision of wanting to partner with other businesses, sending clients to the best yoga studio, recommending small gyms, referring our clients to other wellness modalities based on their needs. But somehow, we overlooked our actual desire. The familiarity of running a membership-based business was still ingrained in our minds.

By the end of the year, we knew we needed to change. We weren’t serving our clients by having a little of this and a little of that.  Community and Connection though was still important to us.  How could we focus on one to one coaching but still create community and connection?

We shifted our vision again and decided to continue to include monthly connection events, but also include connecting more with our community of other wellness providers. Our original business idea was centered around working and supporting others who could serve our clients in ways we couldn’t. After all, we aren’t experts in everything, and we envisioned a community of wellness providers working with us. We overlooked this clarity because it was such a change from how we’d been operating the past few years. We were comfortable in operating a yoga studio and we tried like heck to stay in that comfort zone even though that was not our desire.

Overlooking our real vision because we are comfortable with what we know, happens to many of us. Comfort, or certainty as Tony Robbins would call it, is a need we all have. And sometimes moving out of our comfort zone, even when it’s a desire of ours, can be challenging.

Dreams Change

Now 4 months into 2022 and my lenses, my clarity, need readjusting again.

Retreats were more of a side note in our business model. It was always in the back of my mind, but it was not my focus. However, since planning and executing our DREAM Retreat to St Croix, and selling out our Women’s Only Self Care Day Retreat next month – Retreats are now my passion. It’s what I dream about! It’s what I truly love doing!  I love the planning. I love the traveling. I love meeting new people. I love the challenge of being in new surroundings, even when they aren’t quite what you expected.  And I believe Retreats are life-changing!  They are magical and I want everyone to experience them.  That’s why today I just confirmed our second DREAM Retreat but this time to Amorgos, Greece! Yoga, Mindfulness, Meditation, Mindset, Self Discovery and Exploring the Greek Island Culture.

Time for New Lenses!

We experience life and we see things differently. Having clarity is great, but we must notice when the vision becomes fuzzy and blurry. When it does, it’s time to reassess and go back to the drawing board!

So how do we know when it’s time to change our Dreams?

It’s when you no longer are excited by the dream.

It’s when working for the dream is a daunting task.

When it’s no longer fun.

When it no longer brings you joy.

But what if your current dream no longer brings you joy, but you don’t know what will?

You feel stuck.

You may be living the dream you thought you wanted, but something is still lacking.

That’s what the Total MindShift is all about.

It’s taking the time to shift our thought patterns so we can begin to dream again. To let the world be our playground. To listen, truly listen to our heart’s desires.

I practice what I teach. Whenever I feel frustrated, or I feel myself avoiding things, I stop and go inward.

I dig into my psyche. Observing my thoughts and taking note of the observation.

How am I feeling? Are there limiting beliefs stopping me from pursuing my dreams? Do I just need some time to myself?

Mindfulness and Self Care are key.

Finding New Clarity – AGAIN…

So if you are feeling you need to get clarity again. That perhaps your dreams have shifted. Here’s what I recommend.

1. If you don’t journal start, or at least have a practice as you work through getting your clarity. I love the exercise from “An Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron of morning pages. Write 3 pages I believe even if it’s the same thing over and over. Just write and get it out.
2. Sit and breathe. This is great advice for whenever anxiety or frustration creeps up. Focused awareness meditation of simply noticing your breath. This simple technique calms the nervous system and will help move you into a powerful state, or the parasympathetic nervous system.
3. Find Gratitude for what you currently have. This is key. Even if we’ve recently experienced loss or tragedy, we can find gratitude for other things in our lives. Without gratitude, we cling to frustration and anger for what we don’t have. This will never propel us to living our dreams.
4. Clarify your values. There are numerous exercises out there to do this. One I like is from the book “Who’s in Your Room” by Emery, Misner, and Sapio.
5. Hire a Coach. Coaches are trained to not solve the issue for you, not to layout your dream based on any survey or quiz. No, coaches are here to support and help you find the answers in yourself. Because it is already inside you, you just need to bring it to the surface.
6. Live. Love. Laugh. Life is whatever you create, and you can only create when you are embracing the current moment.

Living in Motion

What I’ve learned over the past 7 years, is that my dreams and desires are always in motion. That my values guide me. And that the universe is always working for my greatest good! That last belief is faith. Faith that our dreams are worth pursuing. Faith that we are here for a reason. Faith that love always wins. Faith in ourselves and those around us.

If you’d like to explore working together and creating a Total MindShift so you can consciously create a life you love, schedule a no-pressure call with me, and let’s see where the road goes.

And if you want to experience a mini DREAM Retreat this summer, join us for a weekend in the Poconos. Experience Yoga Nidra, a mindfulness walk, morning meditation, river rafting and connection to community and to nature. Check it out! Limited spaces!

The post When It’s Time To Replace Your Lenses appeared first on Eclectic Well-Being.

Last year I wrote about hope. Seeing all the suffering and destruction in the news this week got me thinking once again about hope.

Once again, I asked myself again, “What is Hope?”

“I hope I won’t be late for my meeting.”

“I hope I find the right property for Eclectic Inn and Sanctuary.”

“Geez, I hope I’ll win the lottery.”

You may have said something similar over the last few days if not the last few hours. Well, maybe not the second statement, that one is pretty much all me!

But what is hope?

I hope I’ll win the lottery is pretty much wishful thinking.  It’s not exactly hope, it’s a wish. And one with very low odds of happening.

It’s a wish because there is absolutely nothing you can do to make that happen except to buy a ticket and wish.

Hope is not wishing for something to happen that you have no control over.

There are things one can do to be timely and there sure the heck are things I can do to find my Inn and Sanctuary.  (like calling my realtor today!)

Last year I wrote, “Hope is being optimistic for the future, clearly understanding where you are now and where you want to go.  It’s being able to recognize potential actions to be taken that will make the positive outcome more likely.”

Hope is definitely needed in the world today.

We need optimism, not all gloom and doom.

We need compassion and understanding, an open heart, and an open mind.

Without hope, there is no reason to help those in need.

Without hope, there is no reason to get up each morning.

Many who suffer from depression have lost hope. Depression steals that hope for a better future.

A country that sees no end to its destruction can also lose hope as if they don’t matter.

Hope is essential to improve upon what we already have. It’s what helps us create happiness.

Hope can lift us up.

But Hope must be paired with action.

You’ve  heard me talk about Einstein’s famous quote, “the most important decision man can make is if he lives in a friendly universe or an unfriendly universe.”

Hope requires us to decide we live in a friendly universe.

That one decision allows us to see the suffering, the hurting that is around us, but than to believe there must be better days ahead.

That is hope.

Currently, it may seem hard to see the universe as friendly, especially with all the killing and destruction. I can’t begin to make sense of it. But, I choose hope. I choose a friendly universe. I decide that the universe has some ultimate plan that will bring better days ahead.

That hope sets me up to take action. To do what I can to bring about Peace. To help those in need. Those in their darkest hour.

That is why Eclectic Well-being is donating 10% of all revenue this month to one or more organizations providing resources and aid to Ukraine. (Maybe it’s time to set up that Well-Being 101 Discovery Call or book that last spot on our retreat to St Croix so we can send even more funds to create hope.)

And our hope drives us to do what we do.

To help others consciously create a life they love. To spark hope in our clients so that they can take their own action to create more hope for those they love.

A world without hope?

That would be a world of suffering. A world without love and compassion.

I can’t imagine not having hope. Not believing that the future must be better than today. That love can conquer.

A world without hope would be filled with destruction. Filled with war. Filled with greed.

Let us all hope for peace.  

Not wish for peace, but hope.  Meaning we create a vision of peace and then we take action to move us toward our vision.

No action is too small.

Perhaps it’s simply being kind to a neighbor.

Or listening to someone you disagree with, with an open mind.

Action can also be sending money or volunteering for a cause that is working toward the same vision.

Hope is listening to someone who has no hope. Being there for them. Showing them, not telling them that there is reason for hope.

If you find yourself feeling a bit hopeless, take a moment and acknowledge one thing you are grateful for. Then another. Then another.

Use that gratitude to help others. To give them Hope. So that one day they too will be grateful and we can all find happiness and peace together.

The post What is Hope? appeared first on Eclectic Well-Being.